The Boat Magazine #S - The Illusion Issue - Still a Mirage (New Cover Edition)

**This is a book that collects "illusions."** Open its pages and journey into a child's imagined forests with the music of Sigur Ros; pause in scenes "in between" with the photography of Chen Yi-hsuan; or join us in earnestly dreaming a few small dreams. **Featuring a newly redesigned cover, exclusively by Happ Design. Each copy is hand-stitched and bound, limited to 200 editions, with the edition number marked on the back cover.** Revision Date: October 2018 Publication Date: April 2014 Bilingual (English/Chinese), Full Color 56 pages, hand-bound, 170 x 230 mm Operating under the philosophy that art is omnipresent, "The Boat Studio" founded "The Boat Magazine," drawing inspiration from the five senses of human perception. This issue, "The Illusion Issue," follows the Tactile, Olfactory, and Auditory issues. We aim to earnestly dream a small dream, to sincerely engage with the alluring "illusion" beyond the five senses, while also attempting to reveal the truths that lie beneath these phantasms. **The Boat Magazine #S - The Illusion Issue - "Still a Mirage"** **Table of Contents:** 1. Foreword—Beautiful Phantoms / Hong Hsiang-ju, Li Yi-hua 2. Mixed Media—Man with an Axe / Liliana Porter 3. Photography—Nowhere to Be Found / Chen Yi-hsuan 4. Text—The Audacity of Saudade / Huang Hsiao-mi 5. Installation Art—Transplanting Nature / Wang Lei-ying 6. Film—A Warning of Lost Nature / Björn Flogfjell, Hong Hsiang-ju 7. Submission—Still a Mirage / Wang Po-tun, Liu Tao 8. Interview—The Beautiful Project / Li Yi-hua **Foreword:** Unknowingly, we have arrived at the future we anticipated in childhood—which is now. In our early thirties, many dreams remain unfulfilled, forgotten, or perhaps, they have simply transformed. Those dreams, once vividly sketched in childhood notebooks, such as the ideal of buying a house in Taipei to live on separate floors with family, or marrying and starting a family by twenty-five while pursuing an artistic career that allowed for frequent travel—reviewing them now feels like a collection of contradictory, naive fantasies. Our inner selves are no longer as simple as they once were, and the external environment has evolved to a point where the possibilities of old dreams no longer fit. Having settled back in Taiwan for nearly two years, I occasionally reminisce about the illusory dreams we chased together in New York. Those familiar foreign scenes now feel distant yet remain profoundly etched in memory. However, we are gradually losing clarity on what was genuinely spoken during those beautiful days in New York, across the Pacific and many lands. Which words were real, and which were merely dreams we once had? Some say reality is merely a very persistent illusion, Zhuangzi dreaming of being a butterfly. The sensory stimuli provided by our environment may not always be directly related to this feeling. Even if the broader environment is harsh and dirty, through illusion, everything can still be beautiful. It is a projection of inner desires, or perhaps, a one-sided imagination. Luxurious housing developments that are heavily marketed yet unaffordable, societal progress that paradoxically leads to environmental regression, and food filled with artificial ingredients and chemical toxins... Every single day, this world manufactures countless dream-like bubbles, constructing beautiful yet false mirages. Following the Tactile, Olfactory, and Auditory issues, "The Boat Magazine" wishes to earnestly dream a small dream, to sincerely engage with the alluring "illusion" beyond the five senses, while also attempting to reveal the truths that lie beneath these phantasms. Publisher: The Boat Studio Cover Design: Happ Design Editors: Li Yi-hua + Hong Hsiang-ju Writer: Huang Hsiao-mi Translator: Jan Hui